Thursday, August 4, 2011

The horizontal emphasis of the Prairie Style is the heart of Dwight Perkins's design for Carl Schurz (JWB, 2010)

Call it what you
want – Arts and Crafts, Prairie School, a stunning union of the two – there is
no doubt that Carl Schurz High School is one heck of a building.Finished between 1908 and 1910, the
building is a clear representation of Dwight Heald Perkins’s assertion that a
school should be so solidly designed that it would serve as the center of a
community – that schools would serve a larger purpose, both physically and
symbolically, than just the housing of classrooms.

In the process of
implementing this philosophy, Perkins turned toward a new style of school
design, building upon Louis Sullivan’s call for a uniquely American style of
architecture.The Prairie Style
began naturally enough in Chicago, the heart of the great Midwestern
prairie.The style emphasizes a
natural integration between building and landscape, horizontal lines, hipped
roofs with broad eves, windows assembled in horizontal lines, and restraint in
the incorporation of decoration.

One of the most
famous proponents of the Prairie Style was, of course, Frank Lloyd Wright,
whose idea of “organic architecture” asserted that any well-designed structure
should look as if it naturally grew out of its site. [www.
Prairiestylearchtiecture.com]

All of these design
elements are harmoniously arranged in the design for Carl Schurz High
School.Look at the original
building that runs perpendicular to Addison Street, and you will find them –
the broad eves, the ranks of windows emphasizing the horizontal nature of the
main building, the minimal use of decoration.

If there was a
Cooperstown for Prairie Style designs, Carl Schurz would occupy a place
equivalent to Babe Ruth’s or Grover Cleveland Alexander’s.This place is IT.

Unfortunately, by
the 1990’s time had taken its toll.The roof leaked and had been covered by asphalt shingles.Windows were deteriorating – and there
are dozens and dozens of them – in great rows of rotting wood.

In an enlightened
move, the Board of Education decided to restore the building to its former
glory.Carol Ross Barney, a
graduate of the University of Illinois School of Architecture, was give the
assignment to oversee the renovation.

Natural materials was a fundamental ingredient of the Prairie StyleCan you imagine covering this with asphalt shingles? (JWB, 2010)

Ms. Barney was in
2005 awarded the Thomas Jefferson Award for Public Architecture by the American
Institute of Architects, recognizing a career or architectural
achievement.She is a Fellow of
the American Institute of Architects, one of its highest honors.She has won four Institute Honor Awards
from AIA and 20 AIA Chicago Design Awards. Her firm has undertaken such notable projects as the new Federal Building in Oklahoma City and the Vietnam Memorial on Chicago's Riverwalk just west of Michigan Avenue.

In the renovation
of Carl Schurz Ms. Barney’s firm oversaw the preparation of detailed drawings
and specifications that changed the original design on as small a scale as
possible.Following the
painstaking preliminary work, 160,000 square feet of brick and terra cotta were
cleaned, tuckpointed and rebuilt.1,200 original windows were either restored or, if they were too far
gone, replaced.The asphalt
shingles were removed and the original deteriorated clay tiles were replaced
with new clay tiles.The complete
project cost 15.5 million dollars.

Some might say that
15.5 million is a lot to spend on a building that is over a hundred years old,
a school building no less.But
take a look at the finished project.This was a building designed by a Chicagoan, according to principles
codified over a period of decades by Chicagoans.It is a mighty and majestic structure that stands as a
symbol for the importance of education in the advancement of a people.

Even the influence of the Japanese style that so intrigued the PrairieStyle designers is in evidence (JWB, 2010)

John Ruskin, the
great Victorian art critic whose Seven Lamps of Architecture, published in 1849, was a huge influence on
the Prairie Style designers, died just ten years before Carl Schurz was
finished.It was Ruskin who said,
“Taste is not only a part and index of morality, it is the only morality.The first, and last, and closest trial
question to any living creature is ‘What do you like?’Tell me what you like, I’ll tell you
what you are.”

Liking this grand old building enough to
bring it back to life says so very much about who we are in this great city by
the lake.